Category Archives: Races

Yesterday morning, I woke up early, scarfed down a bagel and headed to Midtown in the rain. I was able to park my car at Carol’s condo and we walked to the Marta station, where we met Laura.

Though it was raining when I arrived at Carol’s, but by some miracle, by the time we got on Marta, it stopped. Unfortunately, we didn’t know that for a while, because we got stuck in the Marta station. There are two stations that are close to the start of the race – Lenox and Buckhead. Lenox is closer, but we happened to be on the line that went toward Buckhead so we thought we’d just get off there instead of changing trains. Apparently, since the Buckhead station is about a quarter mile past the start of the race, on the route, they were only letting people out of the station in waves, to not interrupt the race (or something like that.) It felt like we were trapped forever, but it was probably only about 10-15 minutes, if that.

We had intended on starting in Wave G, but by the time we got out, that wave was already starting and by the time we got to the start, we ended up in wave L. No big deal really. Since it wasn’t hot and sunny, it didn’t matter if we got a later start.

The three of us mostly ran with some occasional walk breaks, mostly for water, for the first three miles. At mile 3, I really had to go to the bathroom and didn’t feel like running with a full bladder, so I told Carol and Laura to go ahead. Also, i was being wimpy and didn’t want to run up a hill.

From miles 3 to 5, I kind of did a combination of jogging and walking, walking up the hills. The rain was still holding off and it actually ended up being pretty great weather for running. You know I’m walking if I’m taking selfies. Also, hello crows feet. I need to stop slacking on my eye cream.

At Mile 5, I decided there was no reason that I shouldn’t be running, so I did. I just ran at a comfortable pace and tried to take the atmosphere in. I didn’t have any music, but there were so many people and spectators that it didn’t really matter. It was sort of nice to run a race and enjoy it instead of running for time. I’m always running for time.

It looks like it’s raining in this picture, but really it wasn’t.

I ended up finishing in like an hour and 25 minutes (I walked A LOT) which was totally fine with me. The Peachtree is not really a race to PR in, especially if you haven’t been running.

I met up with Carol and Laura fairly easily afterward. We hung out for a little while at the park and then at Laura’s condo before I headed home to take a much deserved nap.

Another Peachtree in the books! I didn’t want to do it, but it ended up being one of the most enjoyable Peachtrees that I’ve done.

Tomorrow is the Peachtree. You know, the 10K that I got shut out of (due to bad luck in their lottery system) for two years in a row, finally got a number this year and proceeded to complain about not being sufficiently trained for. Yeah, that one. So, despite the not really training thing, I’m as ready as I ever will be.

Except for this one thing.

There’s no filter on that picture. That was the sky around 1:30pm today. And tomorrow’s not looking any better.

Not what I’d call ideal running weather. I’ve done races in the rain before. Not many, but a couple. I did the Silver Comet Half-Marathon in pouring rain a couple years ago and survived to tell the tale. So, I’m still planning on running. Unless it’s like a torrential downpour. We’ll see. At least it won’t be stifling hot, so there’s that.

Have you run a race in the rain? Would you skip one if it was raining hard?

A huge part of the reason that we chose last weekend to go up to DC was that my sister Emma was running her first half-marathon, the Nike Women’s Half Marathon. Even though I’ve run ten halfs (halves?), it still means a lot to me when I have friends and family out on the course and considering it was her first, I thought Emma could use some mid-race support.

Jason and I got up and took the Metro to Smithsonian station. There was a course map online and we found a spot right before Mile 11.

You can’t see it in this picture, but right after here, the runners went into a tunnel that had drummers (and maybe strobe lights) inside. We put on our best spectating faces. That’s Jason’s “Go Emma” fist pump. And what’s up with my neck? Anyway.

Seeing all the runners really made me wish that I was running too. It was the first time I’ve ever been on the sidelines at a big race. Though I’ve done a 5K and a 10K this year, I haven’t run a half-marathon in over a year and while I haven’t really felt like I’ve been missing out on anything, in the moment, I missed the feeling of being one of those runners who was being cheered on.

There’s no real reason that I didn’t sign up for another half-marathon after my last, which was in March of last year. I just felt burnt out. I felt sick of training all the time, sick of never PRing and just sick of it all. Ten seemed like a good number to stop, so I did. And while I know that at some point, I’ll want to run another half, right now isn’t that time.

After Emma ran past us, we made our way to the finish line. Though we were only at Mile 11, the finish line was much less than two miles away. The poor runners saw the finish line to their left and then ended up having to run to the right for another mile and double back (or something like that.) What a cruel course! As we made our way to the finish, we were able to see some of the DC sites. Sometimes I forget I used to live here. Now I feel like a tourist when I come back. And take the pictures to prove it.